She was averse to social media, but since word is getting around, I need to verify for her many friends and colleagues – and mine, that Pat Parker died early Tuesday morning (16 December). Her passage was peaceful; her son Tom and I were with her at Holy Cross Hospital here in Silver Spring.

Pat had a PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, having studied under the late Ward Goodenough and done dissertation work in Chuuk, where among other accomplishments she became fluent in the language and helped mediate a major dispute between two traditional villages and the government. She also co-directed the Tonaachaw Historic District ethnoarchaeological project,

Drones provide striking evidence of the permanent damage that the asshats at Greenpeace did to the Nazca lines

Last week as part of a calculated publicity stunt Greenpeace defaced the cultural landscape surrounding one of the best preserved examples of the Nazca lines. Drone footage just released (link below) shows how significant the damage the caused is and how permanently visible it is.

Permanent damage visible from the damage done to the Nazca lines by Greenpeace

50 year old crucible provide further evidence of Norse presence in the Arctic

A stone vessel discovered over 50 years ago has been identified by Dr. Patricia Sutherland as further evidence of a Viking or Medieval Norse presence in Arctic Canada during the centuries around 1000 A.D.

As reported in Geoarchaeology the artifact was excavated 50 years ago from a site on Baffin Island. It was recently identified as a crucible that would have been used for melting bronze for use in ornaments or small items. This find further bolsters the evidence for the Norse traveling and establishing way points to trade for arctic trade goods such as walrus ivory and soft pelts that were in high demand in northern Europe.

A stone vessel discovered 50 years ago has been identified by Dr. Patricia D. Sutherland as a vessel used by vikings for high temperature smelting.

This is going to be a great story to watch unfold. The cigar sized box was buried in 1795 by Gov. Samuel Adams, patriot Paul Revere, and William Scollay, a militia officer during the Revolution at the cornerstone of the capital that was then finished in 1798. The box is currently being examined and imaged prior to being opened.

Please sign the Whitehouse.gov petition to stop the Native American Land Grab

In the recent National Defense Authorization Bill H.R. 4355 was a rider granting a legislative land swap near Superior, Ariz., for the benefit of a foreign company Rio Tinto PLC who seek to mine copper. When land swaps do occur, according to a 2010 policy brief by the University of Montana they occur through administrative channels. This land swap though is being included as a rider on the National Defense Authorization Act for 2015 which is guaranteed to pass which then subverts the normal administrative process for authorizing a land swap. The gist of the land swap is that Resolution Copper -- a Rio Tinto venture with a foreign company BHP Billiton Ltd. -- would trade more than 2,000 acres of federal land in return for more than 5,000 acres of company land. It is an important detail to note that many article state the land is being "given" to the corporation, where it is technically a land swap. The use of the word "give" instead of "trade" or "swap" is an important nuance that people need to be careful of in discussing this if they want to present the issue in a balanced perspective.

Great News! The word is that the Native American Council Will Offers Amnesty to 220 Million(!) Undocumented Whites

I was excited to read today from one of the internets most reliable news sources that the Native American Council officially offered Amnesty to the 220 million undocumented whites living on Tribal land. Some highlights from their decision are:

My thoughts go out to the group of CRMers who were just laid off out West. Two weeks before Christmas, thats tough folks. I am really sorry to hear that.

For those of you looking to get into CRM this is also a cautionary tale. Funding for projects can be capricious. The general rule of thumb for a company is that for each employee a company has they need to bring in $100,000/yr per head to meet all the backend expenses (utilities, insurance, etc… all add up really really fast) so your project managers are always having to be looking out 6 months, 12 months, 18months+ ahead and making sure their budgets meet their needs. And if one or two key projected projects are delayed or cancelled, or not received and there is not forewarning it can throw a huge monkey wrench into the works.